Content Is King for Your SEO Strategy

Writing a blog is tough work.  Not the actual writing part of the blog, nor the creation of the content calendar.  The tough part is sticking to it.  Sometimes I wish there was a “blog trainer,” you know, someone to tell me to write 15 more words or to get off my lazy butt and get to work.  Surely if it works to get folks into shape, it could also work to get businesses into better shape.

A blog, or any piece of content for a website, is a critical part of the website’s success.  The old adage “build it and they will come” definitely does not apply to a website.  With the growing level of competition in residential housing, owning a website that is found in search results is critical to NOI.  Your digital marketing strategies are now the top priorities in any marketing plan. So, why is it that content will help you maintain a successful website?

Every year, Searchmetrics, the global leader in SEO marketing and analytics for enterprise level companies, releases their SEO ranking factors analysis. Here’s what they found in 2014:

  1. Create robust site architecture
    • Do include good internal links
    • Do aim for short loading times
    • Do keep sites up to date
    • Don’t lose focus or just focus on technical aspects of the site
  2. Pay attention to keywords in titles and descriptions
  3. Relevant content reigns supreme. Keyword is “relevant content”
    • Include semantically comprehensive wording
    • Implement higher word counts using relevant topic terms
    • Use multiple media types (pictures, video)
    • Don’t follow spammy onpage advertising techniques
  4. Use quality backlinks. If you have a large portfolio you should be linking to all of your properties on each website. And they should each have their own website.
  5. Social signals are a bonus. Facebook, Google+, Twitter and Pinterest.
  6. User signals are critical.  What folks do on your site and how they find your site are becoming more relevant with each passing year.

Combining the above into a clear SEO strategy is critical to the success of your website.  Having a well-structured site technically is nice, but if you’re only focused on that than your competitors will leave you in the dust.  Content is King for your SEO Strategy. And luckily there are some good SEO strategists out there to help get you on the right path.

And they may even help write those blogs that seem so difficult to maintain.

Happy Marketing!

 

Budgeting For Your Residential Marketing Plan

My Fantasy Football season started this year to dismal results.  Despite being projected to win by 15 points, I lost by over 40.  At one point (Sunday) I just stopped checking the scores.  Some of my guys fumbled the ball, others were benched – bad start.

How is this relevant to digital marketing?  Well, I did my homework – Googling all I could about the 2013 projections, what strategy worked best in the draft and how to align players compared to my opposition.  I spent a huge amount of time online (yes I should have been working, but it’s football and I have a need to win against my cousins…lots of therapy sessions couldn’t fix it).  The point is, the information I needed was online and that’s where I turned…from my phone, my iPad, my computer, you name it.  I was searching and scribbling.

Like me, renters and buyers and landlords are all turning to whatever screen they have to search for new places, old places, cool places, the “it” places.  But, are they finding the right place (a-hem, your place)?

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